How To Spot A Scam And Stop It Dead In Its Tracks by John Karnish
According to the US Securities and Exchange Commission the
internet is an extremely easy place to promote a scam. The
internet allows people to reach a large populace with a very
small amount of money. "Anyone can reach tens of thousands of
people by building an Internet web site, posting a message on an
online bulletin board, entering a discussion in a live "chat"
room, or sending mass e-mails."
It's extremely hard to spot fraudulent opportunities from the
real ones and you can end up losing a large sum of money.
Message boards are an extremely easy way to post a scam. All you
need is an alias. The scamster simply creates a post under a
false name. He then starts creating a thread. For instance, "Has
any one heard of xyz company, I heard they offer a great
opportunity." A bit later, he'll follow up with something like
this. "Yes, I heard of them. I've only been an associate for a
month and have already made $2,000 dollars."
He'll keep on creating threads with different aliases to create
false credibility.
Email is also an easy way to promote a scam. A scammer can reach
hundreds of thousands with little money or effort. One popular
email scam lately is the "Nigerian Scam." Emails are sent to
business owners, claiming that the sender is a high official in
the Nigerian Government. They claim that they need move a large
sum of money out of their bank, and with your cooperation, they
want to deposit it in your business account. They require either
an up front fee or your banking information. As you probably can
guess your bank account will get depleted.
Whether the Nigerian Scam actually originates in Nigeria is
unknown, but the US SEC suggests that investors should be wary
of off shore investments. Because of the difference in laws,
money and so on, you'll have a hard time getting yourmoney back,
if you do at all.
One last scheme is the classic Pyramid Scheme. You can easily
spot these with headlines like "Turn $5 into $300 in 3 weeks.
These programs never work unless you're the one who started
them. So stay away from them.
To sum up, if anything sounds too good to be true it probably
is. Through hard work and time there is money to be made on the
internet, but there is no "easy money." At least I haven't found
it.
About the author:
John Karnish is the founder of the Internet Marketing Resource
Center, which offers Free Webmaster Tips Tools, & Resources
==> http://scams.internet-marketingpro.com/
